# Nonhuman Personhood **Domain:** Rights / Animal Cognition / Legal Theory **Doc Type:** Canonical Rights Node **Maturity:** Evolving ## Definition **Nonhuman personhood** is the proposal that some entities outside _Homo sapiens_ should possess legal or moral standing based on capacities, relationships or interests rather than species membership alone. ## Evolutionary Nexus Primatology and human-origins research in [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] dissolve a simple human/nonhuman cognitive boundary. Machine-rights theory cannot ignore animals whose social and cognitive lives already challenge species-exclusive personhood. ## Governance Context Personhood need not be all-or-nothing. Standing can protect bodily integrity, habitat, association and freedom from destructive experimentation without granting every human civic power. ## See Also [[wiki/Primatology|Primatology]], [[wiki/Recognition Threshold|Recognition Threshold]], [[wiki/Relational Personhood|Relational Personhood]], [[wiki/Rights|Rights]]